An Important Task
by vivid tangerine kitsune
Summary: Matsuda wasn't important enough to fulfill any of these tasks. Matsuda was important enough to go to the Yagami house and tell the family their son was dead. oneshot MatsudaxSayu if you squint Post-Death Note immediately after events


Happy late Valentine's Day Gabby (remember when I used to call you that????????)!!!! To all the other people: hellos! I wrote this as a gift to a friend because according to her, there isn't any decent MatsudaxSayu fanfics (of course, even after I write this, there probably STILL won't be any. Sorry 'bout that!).

Oh yeah, I'm aware that after she gets all kidnapped, Sayu doesn't really RESPOND to people and is in a wheelchair I think, but I choose to IGNORE that fact! ARTISTIC LICENSE WOOT!!!!!!!

* * *

Matsuda had trouble driving to the house. He couldn't concentrate: he sped up and slowed down randomly, turned at the worst possible times, and had a lot of angry drivers give him the finger. No matter what he did, his fingers continued to shake, his movements jerky. Whoever had decided that he was OK to drive alone needed their head checked. 

Of course, he was the only one free at the time. Everyone else was busy: it would take a lot of work to fix a mess like that one. People were running around in a frenzy, trying to clear things up before the public started to wonder why they'd heard gunshots. Mikami was a huge liability: he needed to be sent away quickly and quietly. Someone needed to find Misa and arrest her; who knows what she could and would do when she found out what had happened. They weren't sure about Ryuk: it's not like they could really do much about his flying off like that. And, of course, they needed to get rid of Light's body.

Matsuda shuddered when the image of Light crept into his mind.

Near had almost immediately taken charge, yelling orders to everyone. People were split up into groups and given a list of tasks to fill.

Matsuda wasn't important enough to fulfill any of these tasks or even help out a group.

Matsuda was important enough to go to the Yagami house and tell the family their son was dead.

* * *

He stepped out of the car, using the door to support him when his legs threatened to buckle under him. He looked up at the house. He'd been there a few times, but it had a totally different feel those times; he never thought a house could look depressed. The house was dark except for one window at the top. Matsuda sighed and walked to the door. 

Matsuda had to roll back his sleeves in order to ring the doorbell. It was Mogi's jacket: his had blood on it, which he didn't think was the best way to enter a house. _Oh, the blood? Funny story about that . . . _It was about four sizes too big, but at least it made his shaking a bit less obvious. He rang the doorbell--his hand was still shaking, causing him to ring it twice in quick succession--and he watched the windows in the house light up one by one, as someone dashed to the door.

He'd been hoping that no one was home. What was he going to say: "_You know your beloved son Light? Guess what: I just SHOT him! If you don't believe me, then check out my shirt: it's covered in your now dead son's blood! I can't tell you why or some short little punk with white hair will yell at me, but let me assure you that it had nothing to do with Kira! Well, I gotta go; I'll send my dry-cleaning bill here after I get this mess off my suit. Cheery-o!_"? Matsuda didn't think that would go over well.

He cringed when he heard the doors being unlocked, and forced himself to look up when the door opened. It was Sayu who answered the door. "Matsuda?" He didn't answer. She stood awkwardly outside, looking past him to see if Light was behind him somewhere. The task force used to come over a lot . . . before her dad died.

"Is your--your mother home?" He had trouble asking.

"Nope. Went out with some friends." Sayu felt uncomfortable just standing at the doorway, and didn't like the look on Matsuda's face. "Um, would you like to come in?" she asked, stepping out of the doorway. He didn't say anything, just walked through.

Well, Matsuda thought, at least he had gotten this far without chickening out. Of course, now he was in an awkward position. It would be weird if he waited for Mrs. Yagami, and besides, he doubted he could wait that long in the house without going insane. All over the house were pictures of Mr. Yagami--looking much more relaxed then whenever Matsuda had seen him--and Light. He couldn't look at any of them: the faces seemed to be mocking him with their innocent smiles. He focused instead on Sayu as she ran around the house trying to clean. Matsuda wished the house had been messier: that way, she would have to spend more time cleaning, and he could put off the inevitable question.

It didn't come, however. Sayu had stopped working, and was staring at the wall, forgetting that there was anyone else there. He'd heard about this: ever since she had been kidnapped, Sayu began acting strangely, and her father's death had only made it worse. He walked up behind her to get a look at what was so fascinating. It was a picture of them on the beach, obviously taken with a cheap disposable camera. Light couldn't have been any older than 11: the idea of Light--of Kira--being a grade-schooler in red swim trunks was odd to him. Sayu stared at it, stared into it, as if she had never seen it before, even though she was in the picture.

"Sayu?"

She clenched her fists, digging her nails into her palm. Tears welled up in her eyes and ran down her cheek. Her breathing became short. Her legs began to wobble, and Matsuda had to grab her arms to keep her from toppling over. He guided her slowly to the floor. Not looking at him, her hand flitted across his face. She grabbed the collar of his--Mogi's--jacket, and held on with the tenacity of one about to fall to their death. She was wide-eyed, staring at the hardwood floor. "Matsuda," her voice was barely a whisper, "why is there blood on your shirt?"

She had smelled it when he first walked in; the metallic odor filled the air around him. When she asked, he didn't say anything, just put his arm around her shoulder. It was all the answer she needed: why else would he be there; why else would he be so anxious, would want to see her mother so much?

She could feel it, could feel the blood from Matsuda's shirt on her back as he tried to comfort her. Her brother's blood, the last remnant of his existence.

She pressed her hand to her mouth, squeezing as hard as she could, and screamed. She screamed at the top of her lungs, until she went lightheaded. She screamed until nothing but a hoarse wheezing noise came out. She then turned around and buried her face in Matsuda's chest and sobbed. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, leaned his head down and stroked her sob hair. He could feel her warm tears on his chest, trying to wash off the dried blood stain. He heard the door open, Sayu's mother walk through the door, drop the take-out box full of leftover food when she walked into the living room.

He didn't go over to explain things to Mrs. Yagami, didn't even glance over at her. He held on tight to Sayu. His vision blurred; he let the tears roll down. His task had been to comfort Sayu, and no one was going to take that away from him.

* * *

Yeah, not that romantic . . . but it's a one-shot! Sorry that the ending sucks, but I'm pretty stuck (think of it this way: the ending matches the rest of it!) 


End file.
